Look people, it's safe to assume they brought in D'Antoni to try and run the Steve Nash offense. Problem is Nash is 38 and he might do his thing this year, but he will be falling apart due to his age very soon. Maybe he can handle this season, but I'm not sure if he's got another year in him to RUN the offense with starter minutes. He might be effective off the bench for a couple more... but you see, it means pretty much they are all invested to win the championship THIS year. So D'Antoni makes sense as long as Steve Nash is the starting point and plays enough minutes and that comes with a limit time wise. Otherwise Mike D'Antoni is not the man they need.

Again Howard might not re-sign after this year and the rest will get one year older and slower. If they lose Dwight after this year, they HAVE to rebuild around Kobe. As Matt pointed out, Kobe has a no-trade clause in his contract (I missed out on that). So they will have to keep Kobe, unless Kobe himself and the franchise decide to change that...

So it all comes down to the Lakers chemistry. When built through big trades, all great teams either develop chemistry immediately (Boston) or it takes lots of time (Miami). It looks like Lakers need time, which they don't have for reasons mentioned above. This year I just don't see them beating Spurs (add Thunder, Grizzlies, maybe Clippers) in a playoff series, when Lakers are still developing chemistry.

About the Steve Nash offense. For it to work, Kobe needs to start playing way more off ball and spot up much more. I'm sorry if I don't see that happening. Pau Gasol wants to post up and for a good reason. He gets tired quickly when he needs to run up and down the court. He likes the half court game much better (watch some Laker games from past and present - you will see him always coming back late on D when pace is fast). Dwight might become a problem when opposing teams start to go for the hack-a-Dwight strategy during playoffs...

I really have difficulty seeing where the chemistry can come from. Starting with the coach who's only good for Nash. Gasol and Kobe being at their best in half-court situations. Their savior in all this mess could be Dwight, but with his atrocious FT-shooting he might also be their downfall.

My original post was about the trading, should Lakers still suck come trading deadline. This post is more about why I think they might suck. I might be wrong on all accounts and they may develop amazing chemistry once Nash gets back. All of this is for consideration only. I think it's the point of a forum.

It's all funny for Raps fans though, because Bargs is a natural option for LA now that they're in the D'Antoni System. It would give them Howard and 4 shooters (ok, Artest is only a shooter on his good days). Now, there are certainly other options, but the thing about trades is there have to be 2 willing partners or more. I've heard some Josh Smith rumors, but fact is with his expiring contract, he's not going anywhere til at least the trade deadline, and then only if Atlanta's season is really down the crapper, like bottom 5 in the league. Otherwise, he'll play out hte season, become a FA, probably re-sign in Atlanta, and the Lakers won't be able to get him. Another name I've heard is Ryan Anderson. I don't think this makes much sense either though since NOH must think him an important piece. They wouldn't be a winning team with Pau, they're that bad. Unless LA takes Eric Gordon's bad knees and worse contract as well, LA isn't getting Anderson. They also won't want another typical big, like Boozer or something, that would just have similar problems.
So unless LA really doesn't like Bargs, he may be one of the better offers out there for Gasol. Obviously there'd have to be other pieces involved, but maybe not that many. It's hard to imagine a team offering a surefire high pick for Gasol, so they'd probably only get picks from average-good teams, or future picks. It's hard to see LA trading for an unproven asset as well, so while bad teams may want Gasol, they may not have anything to really offer a team that wants to contend.

If a deal could land the Raptors a good, young SF to become part of the long-term core of this team, then I could bring myself to accept dealing away Bargnani & Calderon. However, I don't view Gasol as an improvement over Bargnani. He's much older, making way more money, much more injury prone (ie: bad knees) and clearly on the decline. The only way I would support a Bargnani/Calderon for Gasol trade, is if it's a multi-team deal that results in Gasol going someplace other than Toronto and a young stud SF (ie: Gay, Iguodala, Josh Smith) coming to Toronto.

I just don't see Memphis trading away Gay (they have no use/room for Gasol, unless they flip Z-Bo in another trade), or Denver trading away Iguodala (they are building a good young team to really contend in the next 2-5 seasons, not in win-now mode). Rumors also swirled that said Atlanta turned down a straight-up Gasol/Smith trade, so that doesn't make much sense either (apparently they want to preserve cap space and keep Smith on roster, both to lure D12 in the offseason).

I'm just not sure what other team(s) could be brought in to give Toronto a reason to pull the trigger on a deal like this.

I think that if the Raptors want to get something for Bargnani and Calderon, they need to do better than just Gasol, which would mean looking at a multi-team trade.

Exactly. I'd rather let Calderon expire than bring Gasol in on that deal. If he can't be motivated with that team in L.A., WTF is he gonna wanna do here? He'll just be another guy we boo the shit out of, or complain about him around these parts. PASS!